Tuesday, 18 February 2025
The Morning After: What to expect from Apple’s new launch this week
Last week, Apple’s Tim Cook teed up a new product for launch on February 19 — that’s tomorrow. Cook’s tweet also included an animated image of a shimmering Apple logo, which made a lot of us assume the reveal could be for a second-generation AirTag. It’s been rumored for a while that Apple would introduce a second-gen tracker sometime this year, and the original AirTag landed almost four years ago. So there are plenty of tech upgrades the tracker could benefit from.
Rumors suggest the next AirTag may feature a more tamper-proof speaker to reduce stalking and an improved Ultra-Wideband chip with up to 3x longer tracking range. However, would the CEO of Apple tweet (and hype up) a mere accessory? Probably not. Following a barrage of leaks and rumors, a next-gen iPhone SE seems more likely.
This upgraded entry-level basic iPhone may appear with a design closer to the iPhone 14. That means appearing with a notch, so no Dynamic Island, no home button. It’ll likely make the shift to USB-C and probably have enough power to run all those Apple Intelligence features too. (In the past, while SE iPhones have had humble screens and hardware, Apple typically packs them with chips on par with the latest iPhones.)
It could also be a wildcard: Apple’s rumored smart display is meant to arrive sometime this year too. Having said all that, there isn’t really an Apple device as shiny as an AirTag. We’ll find out tomorrow. Hopefully alongside some more tech news because it’s been a quiet few days.
— Mat Smith
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The biggest tech stories you missed
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Viktor Antonov, art director for Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, has died
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Anyone in the US can now buy Nintendo’s Alarmo clock from the online store
Arm is reportedly developing its own in-house chip
The new CPU could be a piece in the $500 billion Stargate AI project.
Arm is reportedly planning to reveal its own processor this year, with Meta as the main customer. The chip would be a CPU designed for data center servers and customizable for clients.
Last month, Arm’s parent company, Softbank, announced the Stargate project, a partnership with OpenAI to build up to $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure. Arm, along with Microsoft and NVIDIA, is a key technology partner for the project. Arm’s chip could now play a role in all of that.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review
Incrementally better… again.
It’s become a depressing trend from recent Samsung hardware: solid, capable devices that lack a strong enough reason to upgrade — or get excited, even. The Galaxy Watch 7 is a capable companion for Samsung phones, with great hooks into Samsung’s Health app, reliable activity tracking and zippy performance. The always-on display hits battery life hard, however, so we were tasked with recharging (or even topping up) the device more often than we’d like.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/KWVsfyT
from Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics https://ift.tt/KWVsfyT
Nintendo Switch's Excellent Gold Points Scheme Is Being Discontinued
Nintendo has announced, with no explanation as to why, that it will be discontinuing Nintendo Gold Points on March 24. The scheme, where points were awarded when buying both physical and digital editions of games, could then be redeemed for discounts. But, ahead of the (still unknown) launch of the Switch 2, they will…
from Kotaku https://ift.tt/pYASdNn
Monday, 17 February 2025
Devs May Start Revealing PS5 Pro PSSR Version Used in Their Games
We recently reported that Sony has been quietly improving PS5 Pro‘s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) behind the scenes. However, it appears that the company wanted to keep those improvements along with PSSR version information a secret. That may soon change, as at least one major developer has revealed the version of PSSR being used in their game.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lauded for PS5 Pro PSSR use and it’s not even the latest version
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been universally praised for a number of reasons, one of which is its excellent utilization of PS5 Pro’s PSSR. Interestingly, a ResetEra user noticed that the official game FAQ notes that KCD2 is using PSSR version 9.60 — information that has never publicly been shared before by a dev until now.
In response to this, another dev who works on PS5 Pro enhancements for their games revealed that PSSR version 9.60 isn’t the latest revision. The dev, who goes as KoralSky on ResetEra, also suggested that Warhorse Studios may have violated a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) because Sony doesn’t allow studios to share PSSR versions… at least it didn’t until now.
We have checked Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s official technical FAQ, and can confirm that it contains PSSR version information at the time of this writing. Whether this info should be public or not is anybody’s guess.
The post Devs May Start Revealing PS5 Pro PSSR Version Used in Their Games appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
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PlayStation Fans Shouldn’t Get Their Hopes Up for a Summer Showcase
Fans are starting to get their hopes up for a PlayStation Summer 2025 Showcase following a new rumor, but it doesn’t look like said rumor is anything meaningful. A journalist/insider recently claimed that the company is “debating” whether to hold a full-fledged showcase or another State of Play.
Why PlayStation Showcase in summer 2025 seems unlikely
The aforementioned claim comes from Jeff Grubb, who said in a recent episode of Game Mess Decides that “internally” Sony is “debating, flapping between maybe making this Summer a full showcase versus another State of Play, but they are considering a showcase.”
Sony last held a showcase in 2023, which focused on both first-party and third-party PS5 games, including the doomed Concord. The main attraction was an extensive look at then upcoming blockbuster, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
While it’s possible that Sony may opt for a full-fledged showcase as part of which it will offer an extensive look at Ghost of Yotei, there’s little else the company has to show in terms of first-party games coming in the near future — at least nothing that it can’t cram into a State of Play, like it has been doing.
Sony has also been dedicating entire State of Play events to a single game, so if it really wants to focus on Ghost of Yotei, it can opt to do just that.
Worth noting that we already have a major gaming event in the summer hosted by Geoff Keighley, the Summer Game Fest. So, unless Sony has some flashy new hardware or accessories to show off, I doubt we’re getting an official showcase.
Besides, the company seems very comfortable dropping major game announcements during events hosted by Keighley. It doesn’t really need a showcase of its own.
The post PlayStation Fans Shouldn’t Get Their Hopes Up for a Summer Showcase appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
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Get Used to Seeing PlayStation Branding in Xbox Showcases
Microsoft executive Phil Spencer has said that PlayStation logo appearing in Xbox showcases won’t be an outlier going forward. In a recent interview, Spencer was quizzed about displaying a rival’s branding during Xbox events, to which he said that the company plans to be transparent about which platforms a given game will be available on.
Microsoft previously debated displaying the PlayStation logo in Xbox events
In a wide-ranging interview with XboxEra, Spencer said that Microsoft previously debated displaying PlayStation branding in an Xbox showcase as far back as June last year. However, by the time Microsoft made the decision to be “transparent,” it was too late to gather all the relevant assets.
Going forward, however, both Nintendo and PlayStation logos will appear every time an Xbox game is launching on those platforms. “People should know the storefronts where they can get our games, but I want people to be able to experience our Xbox community in our games and everything we have to offer, on every screen we can.” Spencer said.
Last August, we pointed out that Sony re-uploaded Xbox’s Indiana Jones trailer — following its PS5 announcement — without Xbox branding. It remains to be seen if Sony will continue to do this when it comes to PS5 ports of Xbox Game Studios titles.
The post Get Used to Seeing PlayStation Branding in Xbox Showcases appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
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